Field Notes Shelterwood Spring Colors Edition – Review

Field Notes
Spring 2014 Colors Edition
“Shelterwood”

Specs From Field Notes:

“The covers are left uncoated with text printed in a triple-hit of “Ghostflower White” which remains slightly opaque, the wood texture showing through like a faded whitewashed fence. Inside covers are mossy green text on kraft paper. The guts of the books are Finch Fine “Soft White” 70# text stock, the same beefy stock you loved in our “America the Beautiful” Edition. They’re ruled in “Maidenhair Green,” and bound together with three sturdy gold staples.”

Notes:

So these look really awesome. The covers are made of a very thin wood veneer that’s bonded to kraft paper. The paper inside is a 70#T “soft white” that’s noticeably thicker (and more fountain pen friendly) than their standard 50#T paper. The ruling is a nice green color, and it’s in the form of lines. It’s been a while since I’ve used a lined Field Notes, and I can say that I did miss it. Make sure to check out the handwritten review scans for the fronts and backs of all of the pages I used for the review. I tried something new this time and used my Doxie Flip to make a PDF of the review. Please let me know what you think!

One thing I noticed is that the covers do have a hard time staying closed on their own. I think I’m going to be using my Field Notes General Purpose Band of Rubber to help keep this one closed. Other than the fact that this is the most fountain pen friendly FN I’ve used, I don’t think I have much else so say about this awesome seasonal release. Act fast, because they tend to sell out. Good thing I ordered two packs, because these are going to see some serious use.

There’s definitely a little splintering present. Typically I keep my books in my front pocket, and they end up getting pretty thrashed. I can’t say for sure how this will hold up in the long run. I’m thinking it might be a great candidate / excuse to get a nice leather FN cover…

Excellent review Ed.
I really like the results you get with the Doxie Flip scanned PDF file. It makes it very easy to see how the paper handles the different pens and inks. The Nakaya Neo Standard with the Diamine Eau de Nil is a great combination with Shelterwood’s paper.
I opened my Field Notes subscription this afternoon and the notebooks definitely want to “breath” – they are staying open, but from the center of the notebook, not from the covers – so I think the thicker 70# paper being used is the reason.
Either way, I am ordering at least a couple more sets to have around.
Thanks so much for posting.

The Doxie works out really well for stuff like this. They just updated the software so that it can automatically stitch smaller images into a larger one. It works really, really well. They definitely want to stay open quite a bit. I think I’m going to keep it shut with a rubber band until it does so on its own. Thanks for reading!

Thanks for the ink test Ed. These are truly beautiful to hold. I’m in Chicago so I dropped by earlier in the week to pick mine up and had an interesting chat with the crew at Field Notes and got to see a wonderfully “aged” cover on one of the early prototypes.

This wood is cherry and should darken to a deep reddish brown with exposure to sun (UV) light. I was given a couple of untrimmed books to experiments with and learn if I can put my woodworking skills to good use and enhance this natural process. I’ll be posting my results later this week.

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